


two man coalition of the moon

by LadyPrince



Category: Starfighter (Comic)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 02:49:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17479793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyPrince/pseuds/LadyPrince
Summary: Abel is, perhaps, the most stubborn, dog-headed, stupid, moronic, lovely, dedicated fool that Deimos has ever met, and will probably never meet again.





	two man coalition of the moon

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt from discord.

Abel is, perhaps, the biggest idiot that Deimos has ever met. Second to none, really; never has he run into a navigator so stubborn that he switches himself away from Cain and goes to Deimos. A navigator so stubborn that he pursues conversations with him even when Deimos pointedly ignores him. A navigator so stubborn that he grabs at Deimos’s hands, declares his love, and admits that he will be fine if he is never loved back.

Never has he ever met a man so admirably, stubbornly stupid that Deimos is almost flattered that Abel seems to care for him so much. Whatever stunts or plans that Phobos has been hoping to do now have gone down the drain, as well as whatever it is that Cain has been ordered to do with Abel.

War has never been so oddly bittersweet as it has been now… or perhaps that is what people of centuries ago felt, people of only decades ago, and Deimos supposes he will never see Abel again once all is said and done.

A quick fooling around in bed, where Deimos lets Abel kiss him and touch his body - but never penetrate nor fondle, no, just slow caresses to try and feel and map out his body. Even if Deimos is no Cain, who is a brick powerhouse, he is still far, far more muscular than Abel. It shouldn’t make him as happy as it does, but emotions have always been a terrible, odd, fickle thing.

He has always thought that the only man he will ever love will be Cain.

Love doesn’t matter in the end; a love so temporarily born will only fall apart when the battlefield is no longer the only thing tethering them together, where Abel will return to Earth and Deimos to the colonies. His heart may have had room, but it may be for naught in the end.

  
  
  


Except this isn’t a normal navigator he is dealing with, because of course it isn’t. Nothing can ever be simple with Abel.

  
  
  


Their departure shouldn’t be anything special; a one-sided conversation where Abel does most of the talking, his hands a nervous flutter, and Cain can’t stop  _ glaring  _ at them both - in the end, both of their hearts have had room, but who is to say that Deimos is the only victor in this game? - as Deimos is talked at. A smile lightens up Abel’s face, makes him look like a golden statue in the middle of the fog of Deimos’s life.

It almost makes him smile, sincerely, at Abel. Almost.

“I’m going to come to the colonies with you.” Abel says when it is almost Deimos’s flight, the ship towering over them all as other fighters yell at each other and get ready to board up and go back ‘home’, and he stops to stare at the navigator like he has grown two heads. “I mean - not now, of course, I’m not authorized to.”

“... you won’t be coming.” Deimos says softly and quietly, as though hoping that Abel won’t hear, but life can’t be easy that way.

The navigator looks at him with those determined eyes, burning bright with resolve that is comically out of place, and says, “I will. Doesn’t matter how long it takes. I  _ will  _ come to the colonies, and I  _ will  _ visit you. Stay with you, if you’d let me.”

Cain slams his left palm against Deimos’s back, snarls at him, and glares daggers at Abel who only glares back. He pushes him onto the ship where they both have to take their leave, and Deimos falters, looks over his shoulder, and Abel is still standing there, arms crossing in front of him, and a smile overtaking the glare on his face.

Love glows in his expression.

The colonies will dim him away from that light.

  
  


Getting letters in this day and age is a rare ordeal, and even rarer in colonies; not a lot of men, women, or people here have outside relations, and if they do then it is the case that those outside relations don’t want to be associated with them anymore. The colonies is a shitshow, not even Deimos is immune to how this place breaks people down. It is the reason why Cain even desperately took that mission in the first place… and it is that very same mission that has Deimos witnessing Abel standing over a man he has killed with his own hands.

War is a dangerous thing.

It is best Cain doesn’t know what Abel has done for their sakes.

He lives his life like he used to: he resumes working a soul-crushing physical labour job, lives in a government issued rooming house that does little to make him feel at home, and stays with Cain like his second shadow. Cain falls back easily onto the routine - his shark’s grin is back, eyes wild and wide opened, new scars line his face and a new one lines his throat from where it has been slashed and nearly ended Cain’s life.

All of them are stories to share, and Cain makes sure to include the one where Abel ends up getting brainwashed and stabbing Cain in the stomach just because he  _ can.  _

He tells everyone he hasn’t been getting any ‘love emails’ when Cain jeers out that his old navigator has fallen for Deimos, waves goodbye to them when they are all too drunk to even remember the first letter of Deimos’s name, and heads back to the rooming house with Cain in tow. He shoves him into his room, the disgruntled man crying out in surprise, and Deimos heads out to his own room and brings out a small box of Abel’s letters just to read in the privacy of his bed.

Emails are still sent out to him by his navigator, checked on with a repaired tablet gifted to him on the Sleipnir from Abel, and yet the letters still have their own antique cuteness to them. Abel’s handwriting is a mess, almost hard to read at times, and he appreciates the fact that the other seems absolutely useless with pen and paper and not stylus and tablet. It is cute, and Deimos appreciates getting the letters even though it takes weeks to arrive here, only made possible thanks to Abel’s near-infinite wealth.

He has family problems, and Deimos doesn’t expect him to ever be able to get here without being strangled to death by the shackles of his family.

The emails and letters Abel sends to him still warm his heart, and Deimos allows himself to smile in the privacy of his room, where Cain won’t see and scream and fight, like he is wont to do lately. Always gets that way when he thinks of Abel and sees Deimos, realizes how he has lost, and he lashes out.

It makes Deimos feel irreversibly smug.

 

The mantra of  _ We Have a Place in the Moon  _ repeats in his head sometimes. It is a quote from a ebook Abel is reading - an ebook that he has failed to tell Deimos the name of, but promises he will when he sees him in person - and Deimos thinks it’s a bit silly. But the book is something that Abel has been talking to him constantly about - star crossed friends, not even lovers, who reunite with one another to then explore the endless world around them, only to suffer from a failure of technology that leaves them to atrophy on a moon.

It doesn’t have that happy an ending, Abel tells him in an email that is sent to him when Deimos is fast asleep and exhausted from a day of hard work, yet he seems to care so much about the ebook, about that line.

Abel has always been so very emotional; perhaps from all the way since his childhood to even now, where Deimos can imagine him crying over fictional women, men, and people, being comforted by someone light years away, who can barely talk to him on whatever shitty internet is being provided to them.

He is the unfortunate poor of the colonies, not even those rich bastards who sneer and turn their noses at them, and Deimos wonders why it is that these scumbags are so damn attracted to this shitty little dwarf planet. 

_ We Have a Place in the Moon  _ repeats in his head, and he can imagine the way Abel’s voice says it - sweet and pleasantly smooth, a contrast to his own deeper voice - and the way his eyebrows pinch together, eyes watering as he is hit with sadness over that ebook again. He looks down at his hand, and curls his fingers into a fist.

Work is long and arduous, Cain’s complaints get louder with each hour that passes by and Deimos quietly agrees with him, keeps his head down when the supervisor comes to bark and yell at them, and he sighs -

 

“Deimos!”

 

The world around him freezes. The supervisor tenses up as well, taken back by a voice that doesn’t sound weathered by smoke or beaten by toxins, and Cain tenses up like a Medusa victim. Deimos lifts his head up, slowly, eyes wide, and the golden light burns through the fog of his life once more.

All the other colony workers look at them for only a second, a few being clearly alarmed from seeing an Earth human and not a colony human walking on this snowy shit-planet who is all wrapped up in a thick poncho, his face reddened from the cold and his hair swaying in the wind. A smile paints his beautiful face, and Deimos drops his tools. 

He looks like he has literally just arrived an hour ago, looking so tired and heavy, and one of his arms come up to rub at his eyes to try and keep him awake so that he can run up to Deimos. The supervisor stumbles away, too intimidated to even try and berate a rich looking person from Earth-

Especially when said person has been making a more than controversial name for himself.

“I told you!” Abel gasps out, his voice shaking and his teeth clatter together, yet he looks so happy to see Deimos again. “I told you I’d come to the colonies with you!”

He punches Abel in the face, then grabs him by his dumb poncho and yanks him into a tight hug when the man is disoriented and confused. He pushes Abel back, just to take in how little the navigator has changed, how the scar on his lips has healed, how his one eye is pale and glassy prosthetic, and Deimos huffs. “Hey.” Abel tries again, shy now, as though realizing how stupid he must look, and Deimos wants to…

  
  
  


“Hey, Ethan.”

**Author's Note:**

> [ Pillowfort. ](https://www.pillowfort.social/transistor) | [ Tumblr. ](https://transistories.tumblr.com/) | [Twitter.](https://twitter.com/EmptyHeartLover)


End file.
